26 f I :: C /\, ,: ... 'F Y /-:\ ' ..) . \,. \..,..' ,. ( '''\'' ,. ......'., "J i r ',...j ., " ' J ' ,'\> J_- , , '\ ", .( """- %t "" . "- " w ! · SEPTEMDER I , 1950 ""-- with Father and Broth- er, and when we reached the curb In front of our building, Father sa t down. He said he felt weak. Mother patted his shoulder, but she was preoccupied, and pres- ently she walked away. Brother and I sat down beside Father. It took the demon- strator a considerable time to cover the dis- tance Mother had driv- en in almost nothing, and he scraped a fender against one of the trees that she had cleared nicely. When he did draw up in our drive- way agaIn, Mother re- joined us. She had been thinking about the ma- chine, she said, and had decided it was badly de- sIgned. She urged the demonstrator to have the company produce a model with a steering wheel. A wheel was the natural appurte- nance; the very sight of it indicated its pur- pose. The demonstrator told her that few, if any, electrics were made with steering wheels, because wheels took up too much room Mother said he was mistaken about this and de- scribed for him Mrs. Frank Ball's elec- tric, which had been made to order for her and the five Ball children, and was right then in constant use in Muncie. I t was built like an open trolley, with three wide seats, one behind another, and the steering apparatus was a wheel, set fiat, like a motorm-an's. It had proved most satisfactory, Mother said. My father suggested from the curb that before she had a special electric built, we investigate other makes, and the demonstrator took his Detroit Elec- tric back downtown. ' \.,\ .a.! 1! ' ) 1 y ,. "T here's no need to feel sorry for hzm. He can just sit there and make ezghteen thousand dollars " flat key into a slot in the speed-control bar This would turn on the current. Because we had been driving, the key was In the slot already, so the current was, of course, on at that moment, he said. While the demonstrator was telling Mother all this, I could see her grow- ing restless. FInally, he asked if she would lIke to try sitting in the driver's seat; he would get out, come around to the other side, and sit beside her, he said. As he spoke, he opened the left- hand door and got out. Mother had slid over into the driver's seat before he uttered the last syllable. I sat diagonally across from her on the front seat, facing her. I knew she was not going to wait for the man to go around the car and get back in; she had had enough of him, and I had a feelIng she was going to do more than just sit there and be shown. I was right. We took off so fast that I had no time to brace myself and was knocked to the floor. I wasn't hurt, but I stayed where I was untIl we stopped. We didn't go far, but we went fast When I raised myself up, I saw that we had come out of our driveway, crossed the # ':, , (' " .: ) ,,'t \ ." " ............... J"JI -- ,'fIIf W> .w "Ç , , \ ....".ø ............. "1t. ) --.,. -, : e J .,.,. ^ --- < ' ." "'" ... ,' . . street, Jumped up over the curb and the sidewalk, passed through a narrow gap between two trees, and stopped a few inches short of the iron gate to the Stevenses' yard. IVlrs. Stevens and her son Jack were on their front porch, rattling the knob and pound- ing on the front door, to be let into their house. Mother called through the car wIndow to them, "I've found the brake!" "'Then Father arrived, on the run, with the demonstrator and Brother just behind him, Mother eXplained that it had been her intention to turn left at the foot of the driveway but instead of pushing the steering bar away from her hard, she had pushed the speed bar. She told the demonstrator that perhaps he hadn't sufficiently emphasized the difference between the two bars He was walking around the electric while she said this, looking, I think, for signs of damage. He seemed to be surprised at the way we had come between the trees without hitting either of them or scratching the paint. He said that if Mother would turn the electric over to him, he would try to back it into the street She and I started back on foot, T HE next make we tried was an Ohio. Another demonstrator brought one around the next day. It also had a steerIng bar, but the speed con- trol was a round knob about the size of a doorknob that was set in the side of the car above and to the left of the steerIng bar ThIs was called the con- trol disc, and you turned it with your left hand to move from one speed notch to the next. Mother was glad to try